Fodder: Did shuttle boom in Bama or not?; 420 meaning; Fodder links

View full size(AP Photo/NASA,Bill Ingalls)The space shuttle Discovery lands on Kennedy Space Center's Runway 33 Tuesday, April 20, 2010, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The shuttle passed over Alabama on its approach to landing in Florida. The question is: Did any one see it and did it make a sonic boom?

(Sometimes humorous,
sometimes provocative, Fodder is a recurring online Press-Register
feature that spotlights water cooler discussion topics of regional or
national interest. Read more Fodder here.)

Shuttle Discovery and its
astronauts returned safely to Earth on Tuesday after making a rare
flyover of America's heartland to wrap up their 15-day, 6 million-mile
journey to the International Space Station.
View full size(NASA)Space shuttle Discovery's route over the U.S. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

Discovery zoomed over the
North Pacific on its way home before crossing into North America over
Vancouver, British Columbia. Then it headed toward the southeast,
flying over northeastern Washington, Helena, Mont.; Wyoming;
southwestern Nebraska; northeastern Colorado; southwestern Kansas;
Oklahoma; Arkansas; Mississippi; Alabama; Georgia and finally Florida
east of Gainesville.

A NASA research team captured infrared
images of the shuttle zooming over Arkansas. In addition, NASA received
reports of sonic booms being heard as far away as Tuscaloosa, Ala.

But not everyone reported hearing the boom. WSFA reported that a sonic boom was heard in Montgomery. But it didn't quote anyone or play audio.

Apparently, the sonic boom of a space shuttle is distinctive from other sonic booms in that the space shuttle has a distinct "double boom," according to NASA. Actually, all sonic booms have two parts, but they are so close together you don't recognize them as two sounds.

The space shuttles are so long, "the interval between nose and tail shock
waves ... is about one-half of a
second (0.50 sec), making the double boom very distinguishable."

It's 4/20 ... and knowing what that means says something about you

View full size(AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)In this Friday Sept. 25, 2009 file photo, attendees at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) conference, smoke marijuana in San Francisco. Today is April 20, or, in marijuana culture, 420. What does 420 mean? Read below.View full size(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)In this file photo of May 13, 2009 a grower holds a marijuana plant being grown for medical purposes inside a greenhouse at a farm in Potter Valley, Calif. To many Americans, today is April 20. That's it. It's just the 20th. But say 420 to some people and -- wink, wink -- it has another meaning. So much so, the meaning of 420 or 4/20 is one of the top searches in the Internet today.

The day is unofficially a sort of National Potsmokers Day in the U.S. and is associated to cannabis culture. Apparently some tokers at a school in North California who referred themselves as "Waldos" used 420 as a code language.

At 4:20 they would meet near the Louis Pasteur statue on campus to light up. Although this began back in early 1970, 420 celebrations across North America have continued since and the University of Colorado has an annual 420 celebration that draws

Coincidentally (or not?), The Associated Press and CNBC today released results of its poll of how Americans feel about legalizing marijuana.

Despite all the 420 interest, most Americans still
oppose legalizing marijuana, though larger majorities believe pot has
medical benefits and the government should allow its use for that
purpose.

Respondents
also were skeptical that crime would spike if marijuana is decriminalized or
that it would lead more people to harder drugs like heroin or cocaine.
There also was a nearly even split on whether government spends too
much or the right amount enforcing marijuana laws. Almost no one thinks
too little is spent.

In the
poll, only 33 percent favor legalization while 55 percent oppose it.
People under 30 were the only age group favoring legalization (54
percent) and opposition increased with age, topping out at 73 percent
of those 65 and older. Opposition also was prevalent among women,
Republicans and those in rural and suburban areas.

Where the stadium has no name: A Montgomery County parents group only wanted to honor a school's first athletic director, Coach Conni Sikes. But they apparently didn't jump through the right hoops and have had to take down the sign.

Search launched for son at home in bed: This is one of those things you can just see happening. A 19-year-old in the Florida Panhandle tells his mom he's going to swim across a bayou and back.
But then he doesn't report for work Monday night. So they look for his car and find it by the bayou, his keys, clothes and wallet inside. A water search is launched. ... Turns out the guy made it across the bayou, was too tired to swim back, then decided to walk from the park he swam to back home. He was found crashed in bed.